How are Human Rights associated with the International Criminal Court?
Answer Hi Frank, The ICC is designed to punish people who violate certain human rights by enaging in genocide, crimes against humanity, or war crimes. Even though the court lacks any power to prevent such atrocities by keeping the threat of punishment up, it hopes to deter people who might otherwise engage in such crimes. However, in my view, it has absolutly no effect on such abuses. Despots engaged in such acts usually believe they are already in some life or death struggle. The slight possibility that they might face jail time some time far in the future is unlikely to deter them. This is especially true since they are unlikely to be prosecuted as long as they control the county. The perverse effect of this is that the threat of ICC prosecution may make it less likely that oppressors will voluntarily cede power and make way for democracy as happened in places like Chile or South Africa. The ICC is especially toothless because the world’s largest power, the US refuses to join. The US
